Diversified Altech
The group has activities in numerous market segments where the demand for products and services just keeps on coming.
Its Autopage subsidiary is one of only two remaining independent cellular service providers in SA, along with its rival, Nashua Mobile.
Anyone seeking a cellphone deal without a bias towards a certain network consults those independent players, and Autopage signed up 115000 new customers last year. It now serves 917000 and should reach 1-million this year, says Altech CEO Craig Venter.
Its stolen vehicle recovery division, Netstar, enjoys endless demand due to SA’s high crime rate, and its Alcom Matomo division is capitalising on Africa’s lack of efficient telephony to export radio communications systems.
Its NamITech arm produces cellular Sim cards, where take up is extraordinary. It produces prepaid airtime vouchers in Nigeria, where sales have rocketed from 10-million a month to 100-million, and it runs Africa’s largest production bureau for MasterCard and Visa cards.
Another division poised for growth — although hampered by government procrastination — is UEC, which produces the set-top boxes every TV owner will need when broadcasting channels go digital. With no local competitor, UEC hopes to provide many, if not most, of the 7-million units needed in the next three years.
Altech also has a boss hankering for globalisation. Venter’s aim is to make acquisitions overseas in the niches where Altech already has experience. Ultimately, he wants 45% of revenue to come from abroad, to create more growth potential and to cushion the group against any local economic slump.
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